North Korea reported Tuesday another large jump in illnesses believed to be COVID-19 as the country's leader Kim Jong Un faces a huge dilemma on aid for its unvaccinated population.
State media said the North's antivirus headquarters reported another 269,510 people were found with fevers and six people died. That raises North Korea’s deaths to 56 after more than 1.48 million people became ill with fever since late April. North Korea lacks testing supplies to confirm coronavirus infections in large numbers, and the report didn't say how many of the fever cases were COVID-19.
The outbreak is almost certainly greater than the fever tally, considering the lack of tests and resources to monitor and treat the people who are sick. North Korea's virus response is mostly isolating people with symptoms at shelters, and as of Tuesday, at least 663,910 people were in quarantine.
In addition to lacking vaccines for its 26 million people, North Korea also grapples with malnourishment and other conditions of poverty and lacks public health tools, including antiviral drugs or intensive care units, which suppressed hospitalizations and deaths in other countries.
The North’s fatalities may surge in the coming weeks as those who develop symptoms later succumb to the illness.
Some experts suspect North Korea is underreporting deaths to soften the blow for authoritarian leader Kim Jong Un, who already was navigating the toughest moment of his decade in power, with the pandemic further damaging an economy already broken by mismanagement and U.S.-led sanctions over his nuclear ambitions. It is also possible that fever cases are underreported by officials who worry about punishment or people do not report their symptoms because they fear the strict quarantine measures, analysts say.
North Korea acknowledged domestic COVID-19 infections for the first time last Thursday, ending a widely doubted claim it was virus-free throughout the pandemic. Describing the outbreak as a "great upheaval," Kim imposed preventive measures including restrictions on movement and quarantines. But while he raised alarm over the virus, Kim also stressed that his economic goals should be met, indicating large groups of people will continue to gather for agricultural, industrial and construction work.
The official Korean Central News Agency said Tuesday that the military had deployed officers from its medical units to help with the transport of medicine to pharmacies in Pyongyang, which began to stay open 24 hours a day to deal with the virus crisis. The types of medicine being given to sick people were unclear.
North Korea’s state media is also driving public campaigns aimed at promoting health and hygiene, including animated TV clips educating viewers to switch their masks frequently and keep at least a meter (yard) distance from other relatives even at home.
The North’s Rodong Sinmun newspaper on Tuesday published several articles about antivirus habits and the pandemic response of other countries. It mentioned vaccines and Pfizer’s Paxlovid antiviral pills without identifying their American developer. But the article, which attributed its information to the Chinese internet, insisted that such drugs were costly and could be less effective against new virus variants and that strong pandemic restrictions will continue to be necessary.
'Really huge dilemma'
During more than a decade as North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Un has made "self-reliance" his governing lynchpin, shunning international help and striving instead for domestic strategies to fix his battered economy. But as an illness suspected to be COVID-19 sickens hundreds of thousands of his people, Kim stands at a critical crossroad: Either swallow his pride and receive foreign help to fight the disease or go it alone, enduring potential huge fatalities that may undermine his leadership.
"Kim Jong Un is in a dilemma, a really huge dilemma," said Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University’s Institute for Far Eastern Studies in Seoul. "If he accepts U.S. or Western assistance, that can shake the self-reliance stance that he has steadfastly maintained and public confidence in him could be weakened," he explained.
The North’s apparent underreporting of deaths is meant to defend Kim's authority as he faces "the first and biggest crisis" of his decade of rule, Nam Sung-wook, a professor at Korea University, said.
The North Korean outbreak may be linked to a massive military parade in Pyongyang in late April that Kim organized to feature new weapons and loyal troops. The parade drew tens of thousands of soldiers and residents from around the country. After the event, Kim spent several days taking dozens of commemorative group photos with parade participants, all of whom were without masks. Most of the photos involved dozens or hundreds of people.
Receiving outside help would put the North, which is always intensely proud, despite its poverty, in a difficult position. Kim had repeatedly touted his country as "impregnable" to the pandemic during the past two years. On Saturday, however, he said his country faces "a great upheaval" and that officials must study how China, his country’s only major ally, and other nations have handled the pandemic.
And North Korea will only accept Chinese aid if it's made in an informal, unpublicized manner because it’s "a matter of national pride," analyst Seo Yu-Seok at the Seoul-based Institute of North Korean Studies said. He said China will likely agree to this because it views aid shipments as a way to bolster ties with a partner as it confronts the West.
South Korea has publicly offered to send vaccines, medicine and health personnel, but North Korea has so far ignored the proposal amid icy relations between the rivals over a stalemate in larger nuclear negotiations between Washington and Pyongyang. Some experts say Kim’s praise of China’s pandemic response during a virus meeting last week indicates that the North would be more willing to receive help from its main ally.